Stochastic Flexibility Evaluation for Virtual Power Plant by Aggregating Distributed Energy Resources

Abstract: To manage huge amount of flexible distributed energy resources (DERs) in the distribution networks, the virtual power plant (VPP) is introduced in industry. The VPP can optimally dispatch these resources in a cluster way and provide flexibility for the power system operation as a whole. Most existing works formulate the equivalent power flexibility of the aggregating DERs as deterministic optimization models without considering their uncertainties. In this paper, we introduce the stochastic power flexibility range (PFR) to describe the power flexibility of VPP, which is formulated as a chance constrained optimization model. In this model, both operational constraints and the randomness of DERs' output are incorporated, and a combined model and data-driven solution is proposed to obtain the stochastic PFR and cost function of VPP. Finally, numerical tests are conducted to verify the correctness and efficiency of the proposed method.